Upon instruction from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), “Malaysia Today” portal has finally removed 3 articles it had published about billionaire Robert Kuok. The fact that the owner of the portal – Raja Petra Kamarudin, widely known as RPK – obediently removed them speaks volumes about the seriousness of fake news promoted by Najib regime.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s scandal-hit government tried to push for legislation outlawing “fake news”. His administration has been whining and bitching about the so-called fake news being spread by influential social media, although the fact remains that it’s not the government’s duty to determine whether a reported news is fake or otherwise.

“Malaysia Today” portal is the clearest example why Mr. Najib should be the last person on planet Earth qualified to talk about fake news. Najib was himself the leader in spreading of fake news. Starting with government-controlled mainstream news media, his government has since engaged influential blogger such as RPK to fight social media dominated by opposition parties.

RPK, arguably the top-paid blogger of Najib Razak, has been publishing fake news ever since the infamous 1MDB scandal exploded in 2015. 1MDB, which has been classified as a “Ponzi Scheme” by the Swiss Attorney General, represents the largest action brought under the U.S. Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, involving stolen money of more than US$4.5 billion.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was the Chairman of 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad), has denied any involvement in the scandal even after he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar – a whopping US$681 million in his private banking accounts. Instead, Mr. Najib has claimed that the money was donations from Saudi royal family, a claim that could not be substantiated.

Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, was also exposed to have had purchased a 22-carat pink diamond necklace – worth a stunning US$27.3 million – using money siphoned from 1MDB. According to U.S.-DOJ investigations, Jho Low had arranged for jewellery designer Lorraine Schwartz (also known as “Jewish Queen of Oscar Bling”) for the pink diamond on June 2, 2013.

So, what does the latest removal of articles tells about Malaysia Today portal? It simply means that whatever RPK has published – including that of Saudi royal family donations to Najib Razak – was nothing but fake news, or at least questionable. This means his paymaster, Najib, had most likely involved in the 1MDB Ponzi scheme from the beginning after all.

Perhaps that explains why Malaysia Today has not written anything to defend the confiscation of luxury yacht “The Equanimity” – worth US$250 million – in a joint operation between the Indonesian government and the U.S. authorities in Bali recently. The owner of the yacht, Jho Low, is believed to be Najib’s partner in the 1MDB corruption and money laundering scheme.

But there’s one interesting thing about RPK’s stunning obediencein the removal of the articles alleging that tycoon Robert Kuok had made financial contributions to the opposition DAP (Democratic Action Party) with the aim of overthrowing the government. RPK was previously known as a blogger who courageously ignored police or government’s warnings or intimidation.

Yet, in this case, a toothless tiger such as MCMC could move RPK to do its biddings. This can only mean one thing. Not only was RPK paid top dollars by Najib to cook up fake news against the opposition parties, the prime minister has also endorsed and approved the attacks on Robert Kuok with the aim of provoking racial conflicts between the Chinese and Malays.

Get real, Robert Kuok was accused of trying to overthrow Najib government, an act of treason and a serious threat to the national security. It would also tantamount to an insult to the Malay, Islam and Agong (King). Under normal circumstance, Kuok would have had been arrested, interrogated, intimidated and put behind bars without bail under SOSMA Security Act 2012.

Amusingly, Najib and his disgraceful warlord Nazri somehow accepted – at face value – Kuok’s simple denial that he had planned to overthrow the government. Mr. Nazri, who had initially called the Hong Kong-based tycoon a “coward with no testicles” and demanded his Malaysian citizenship, subsequently said was happy that Kuok had denied the allegations.

It appears that both Najib and Nazri were the one who are cowards with no balls after their evil plan backfired spectacularly. Nope, it wasn’t primarily because of the backlash from the Chinese community in defence of Robert Kuok that they made the U-turns. That’s because it was the plan all along to flame hatred between the ethnic-Chinese and the ethnic-Malay.

Najib and RPK chickened out because 94-year-old Robert Kuok had pledged to take legal actionagainst online blog Malaysia Today. While RPK was notorious for belittling – even welcoming – lawsuits against him in the past, a legal action from Kuok will be a fight he can’t possibly win. With net worth of US$15.4 billion, Kuok could easily drain RPK’s pocket in legal expenses alone.

Even if Najib agreed to pour the country’s financial muscle to defend Malaysia Today portal in a legal battle, which he won’t, the lawsuit could expose that it was Najib who had paid blogger RPK, who currently lives in Manchester, England, to publish the controversial but unsubstantiated accusations on the respected Chinese billionaire.

More importantly, if Najib hadn’t instructed MCMC to issue the instruction to Malaysia Today in a “face saving” drama to put an end to the screwed-up plan, the legal action would obviously attract the attention of of world, specifically Beijing. Thanks to Kuok’s close relationship with China, Najib and RPK would be digging their own graves if it goes to court.

Chances were, President Xi Jinping could have been briefed about PM Najib Razak’s personal attack on Robert Kuok. The baseless accusation about Kuok’s funding of opposition party to install a Chinese government in Malaysia could easily be mistaken as Beijing’s attempt to overthrow the government. Poor Najib could have already gotten an earful from Beijing.

Clearly, the band of Najib, Nazri and RPK had picked up the wrong guy to bully.Mr. Najib, in his desperate effort to cling to power, must be really frustrated that his plan to demonise the opposition has failed again. Making Robert Kuok the scapegoat to save Najib’s skin is simply too fake and unbelievable – even by the U.S. fake news standard.

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After MCMC rap, will Umno leaders apologise to Kuok? An opposition lawmaker has questioned if Umno leaders would apologise to tycoon Robert Kuok following Malaysia Today‘s compliance with Putrajaya’s demand to remove articles which alleged that the billionaire was funding DAP. Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching said now that the Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had successfully secured the removal of the articles, it proved that the allegations were baseless. What remains to be seen now is whether Umno leaders such as Tajuddin Abdul Rahman and Nazri Abdul Aziz would show remorse for attacking Kuok based on those articles that were removed. “Nazri and Tajuddin must be held responsible for their gangster-like attitude,” said Teo in a statement today. Kuok came under severe criticism from Umno supreme council members Nazri, Tajuddin, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and Azlina Othman Said for allegedly bankrolling DAP and news portal The Malaysian Insight. Although most Umno leaders claimed that Kuok was being ungrateful to BN for doing so, because he benefitted from BN’s policies, Nazri took it a step further by hurling insults.